FAREWELL TO SUPER 5

 

I know, I know, I already know what all you outsiders and McNabb lovers are going to say.  We sucked before Donovan got here...he's made 6 pro-bowls and took us to the Superbowl and many NFC Title games...we've won the most games in the NFC over the last 11 years, and 3rd most games in the NFL behind the Patriots and the Colts during that span...we never surrounded Donovan with enough weapons until now...blah blah blah.  You can call these valid points/arguments, but I call them excuses.  You say McNabb made us successful, but I say our team has been successful mostly DESPITE McNabb.  You say McNabb is the best Quarterback we've ever had, but I say that isn't saying much (aside from Ron Jaworski).  To-MAY-toes, To-MOTT-oes.

 

Here's where we will start the discussion.  Eagles CEO Jeffrey Lurie said it best last year: "The definition of madness is trying the same thing over and over and expecting to get a different result". Or something like that.  Anyway, for 11 years we've tried to build the offense and team around Donovan McNabb; add pieces here, subtract people there, game plan to his strengths, etc.  And for those 11 years, we had some great regular seasons and some solid playoff performances...but we've also had some stinkers, especially when it mattered most.  We got our butts kicked on our own field in the last game ever played at the Vet by the Buccaneers in the 02' NFC Championship game; we had our offense completely shut down by the Panthers at home again in the 03' NFC Championship game; after beating the Falcons and a young Michael Vick to reach what would be our only Super bowl of the Reid/McNabb era at the end of the 04' season, McNabb was reportedly "fatigued" at the end of the game when we had a chance to tie or win, and instead the Patriots beat us and won their 3rd Lombardi trophy in 4 years; then after a few season hiatus, we made an improbable late season surge and playoff run all the way back to the NFC Championship game in 08', only to get beat by the Cardinals (who we had annihilated a few weeks earlier on Thanksgiving Day).  And of course last season, after the Vikings stumbled to the finish we entered Week 17 with a chance to win our division and lock up the #2 seed (and a 1st round bye).  Only instead, we get smoked by the Cowboys in Dallas, letting them claim the division title while dropping us from the 2 seed into a wildcard spot, also causing us to have to go back to Dallas the following week to start the playoffs and of course, Dallas beat the crap out of us AGAIN (the 3rd time on the season; also the Cowboys first playoff win in a looooong time, giving them confidence moving forward).

 

These are the games that stick the most in the minds of Eagles fans and, aside from Andy Reid apparently, everyone else in the Eagles organization.  There were even reports towards the end of last season that most of the players were already gravitating more to Kevin Kolb then to McNabb, even going to Kolb for advice and with questions during games.  And with all 3 of the Eagles Quarterbacks...McNabb, Kolb, and Michael Vick...all entering the last year of their respective contracts, you know something had to give.  At the end of the season, Andy Reid firmly stated that Donovan was his starting QB heading into next year, and reiterated those statements for a few months all the way up until the recent owners meetings, where Reid began singing a new song to the tune of "we are evaluating and listening to offers for all of our quarterbacks".  The only thing is, the Eagles really wanted to trade Vick but nobody wanted him for what the reported asking price was, and the team had zero interest in moving Kolb unless some team gave them a REDONKULOUS offer (a la Cutler to the Bears), which didn't happen.  Plus, the Eagles weren't going to be able to give Kolb a long term deal unless he was the starting QB and they also wanted to see him as the starter before shelling out a ton of money.  So that really left McNabb up a creek without a paddle, and everyone in the Philly organization was on board with ending the McNabb era now....including seemingly McNabb himself (who said he "preferred to stay", but if he had to go just wanted a decision to be made quickly)...except Andy Reid was too busy pounding cheese steaks for the last few months to get or read the memo.  So when good offers reportedly came in from the Raiders and Bills, Andy Reid seemingly forgot that 1) the NFL is a business, 2) players aren't owed anything...something Reid ironically stood by as he dumped/traded/cut/blindsided many veterans and team leaders in just about every other off-season and situation prior to this one, and 3) McNabb made over $150 million dollars during his time in Philly, so he has nothing to complain about.  Yet instead of doing the smart thing, which was sending Donovan to NFL Siberia (a.k.a. Oakland) for a package that could have included the best corner in the NFL Nnamdi Asomugha and simultaneously letting the Kevin Kolb era start with little to no controversy, Fat Andy decided to let the pile of clogged arteries and veins that used to be a human heart get in the way and instead sent McNabb to our HATED DIVISION RIVAL the Washington Redskins!!!!  Hell, even typing that sentence makes my head hurt, let alone realizing that it actually happened yesterday. And now, instead of having to simply deal with replacing one of the best Eagle QB's ever, Kolb will now have to do so while playing AGAINST McNabb twice a season for the foreseeable future (assuming Washington gives McNabb an extension).  AWESOME!!!

 

Listen, I truly don't think this is as big a deal as some of the talking heads do.  Unlike when Shanahan started in Denver with an even older John Elway at QB, that was a looooong time ago, this is a different NFL, and a totally different situation in Washington.  Daniel Snyder is a rich but moronic owner, Bruce Allen is a severely overrated GM, Mike Shanahan is now too smart-for-his-own-good and a weasely Head Coach, and Donovan McNabb is an injury prone Quarterback with a ton of NFL miles on his body, a HORRIBLE offensive line to protect him, and he's going to run a Shanahan offense that's based on accuracy, precision, and good decision making...a.k.a. McNabb's biggest WEAKNESSES!!!  No, from a practical standpoint this decision doesn't seem so bad because I still don't think the Redskins are a threat to the Eagles.  And if everyone was so convinced that Kolb was the future and McNabb was done, it really didn't matter where we sent him.  But practicality aside, this move doesn't pass the "Common Sense" test, much less the "ARE YOU F*#KING KIDDING ME" quiz.  At the very least, this trade makes the Redskins a better team right now.  Hell, instead of investing their 1st round pick on another QB (like Jimmy Clausen) who may or may not work out in the long run (and at the very least it would take the Skins a few years to break him in while they remained NFC Beast bottom feeders), they instead have a franchise Quarterback in McNabb, can trade incumbent QB Jason Campbell to recoup one or two draft picks, AND the Skins will almost certainly use their high 1st round draft pick this year on an Offensive Tackle to help start the rebuilding process of their O-line.  If Andy wasn't going to send McNabb to one of the crappy teams that wanted him, then the Eagles would have been better off just coming up with an excuse to keep and bench Donovan McNabb next year while they let the Kolb era begin.  That's a terrible idea, but it's still smarter than making one of our hated rivals a better team isn't it?  EXACTLY!!!

 

Anyway, what's done is done.  And despite everything that I've said so far about McNabb here...and in the recent past....and the distant past....and basically since we drafted him...I sincerely would want to thank McNabb for all his service.  He did play well at times, and win us a lot of games, and he was the face of this team for years while helping to turn around this organization, which had become a doormat for a while.  The problem is that McNabb was a good Quarterback trying to portray a great one, and that mask fell off his face at the most inopportune times imaginable during his time as our Franchise QB.  Donovan just isn't cut from the same cloth as the Tom Brady's, Peyton Manning's, Terry Bradshaw's, Brett Favre's, John Elway's, Joe Namath's, and even the Ben Roethlisberger's of the world.  He was never able to take the team, throw them on his back, and enter "there is no way in hell I'm losing this game" mode on the biggest of stages.  And I'm very comfortable when I say that this trait is not something you gain at the age of 34 when you go to a worse team/dysfunctional franchise.  Sadly, I wanted to see McNabb go to a crappy AFC team because it would have actually helped to preserve his legacy, and so that someday he could come back and be honored as one of our greatest players ever.  But by going to the hated Redskins....and somehow nobody is making a big deal out of the fact that the HATED Redskins were the one team who made an offer that Donovan was not only willing but "excited" to go to (you notice LT didn't visit with Kansas City, Denver, or Oakland this off-season right?)...we are now going to spend the next few years playing and booing Donovan twice a year, and depending on how the games and the Skins seasons turns out, probably hating him.  Sure, we traded him away, but over time I'm confident that the masses thinking will remember he WANTED to go to Washington.  And that will make things all the worse for a very good Quarterback that we booed when he was drafted, never truly appreciated, and ultimately who we might downright hate now that he's gone.

 

So again I say the following: Thanks for 11 solid years #5, but don't let the door hit you...